Clarke and Chanton Conferred as AGU Fellows

– August 6, 2015

The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) community congratulates two of its own Dr. Allan Clarke and Dr. Jeffery Chanton on their selection as American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fellows.

The Fellows program recognizes AGU members who have made exceptional contributions to Earth and space sciences as valued by their peers and vetted by section and focus group committees. The AGU Fellow designation is conferred upon not more than 0.1% of all AGU members in any given year, and all elected Fellows must receive a majority of the committee’s votes.

Reflecting on this honor, Clarke said, “I’m very grateful to all who helped in my nomination, to Florida State University and my department for providing me with an ideal place to work.” Similarly, Chanton credited “having the best colleagues imaginable and a great place to work” with making this honor possible.

Dr. Chuck Wilson, the GoMRI Chief Scientist, said, “We are delighted to see scientific organizations recognize the success of our researchers, and the GoMRI community extends our congratulations to Allan and Jeff.”

Clarke currently serves as a Distinguished Research Professor and the Adrian E. Gill Professor of Oceanography at FSU. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the Royal Meteorological Society and received the 2012 American Meteorological Society’s Sverdrup Gold Medal. Clarke has been the main advisor for 10 doctoral and 9 masters’ students and 2 post-doctoral scholars. Much of his research has focused on coastal ocean dynamics, recently applying his expertise to improve understanding about oil transport. Clarke has also worked on El Nino, and has constructed a model to predict El Niño, which has been used operationally every month since April 2003.

Chanton is a Distinguished Research Professor and the J.W. Winchester Professor of Oceanography in FSU’s Department of Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Science. He was a 2006 Aldo Leopold Fellow and the 2005 Florida Wildlife Federation’s Science Communicator of the Year. He directs the University’s undergraduate and graduate programs in Environmental Science, currently supervising 5 graduate students and has been advisor to 16 doctoral and 17 masters’ students over his career. Chanton is particularly interested in tracing the fossil carbon released by the Deepwater Horizon spill into the Gulf’s carbon cycle, sediments, and food web.

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The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI) is a 10-year independent research program established to study the effect, and the potential associated impact, of hydrocarbon releases on the environment and public health, as well as to develop improved spill mitigation, oil detection, characterization and remediation technologies.  An independent and academic 20-member Research Board makes the funding and research direction decisions to ensure the intellectual quality, effectiveness and academic independence of the GoMRI research.  All research data, findings and publications will be made publicly available.  The program was established through a $500 million financial commitment from BP.  For more information, visit https://gulfresearchinitiative.org/.

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